Mirroring/collaborating on tournaments info

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

I'm starting this thread because a new (and very positive) trend I've noticed is that many tournaments this year are producing their own independent questions. I think it would be very helpful for people interested in running a tournament to know about these sets being produced so if one in particular seems to work for them to mirror/get involved in writing, those contacts can be facilitated. So here goes -
Post in this thread if you are producing a high school set that you are willing to mirror, and provide as much information as you can about your date and flexibility with mirroring, interest in collaborating, format, etc. as well as providing some sort of contact incase anyone is interested in mirroring the set.
I guess I'll go first, Mizzou will be working on a tournament that I'm planning on hosting in February. We have a deep south mirror in the works, and any team in any area of the country is welcome to mirror the set provided they write 2-3 packets in a reasonable time for me to edit. The format will be your standard 20 tossups with 30 point bonuses, and my email is charlie16 @ gmail . com if you are looking into hosting a tournament in February and are looking for the questions.

[Mechanical Beasts]

The Harvard Fall Tournament, now in its third incarnation, will once again feature house-written questions. It looks, at the moment, like we'll be producing thirteen packets of 20/20. The tournament will be entirely house-written--i.e. there'll be no collaboration with mirror sites--but we're very interested in finding a mirror in the south (and Raleigh Charter doesn't seem entirely uninterested), as well as the midwest and the west coast.

The date of the tournament, as announced in that thread, is 11/15, and while we'd prefer that all mirrors take place on that date for the sake of question security, I'm trusting enough to allow things to run otherwise if it's much more convenient.

Contact me--andy.watkins2 [at] gmail.com and/or watkins4 [at] fas.harvard.edu--to chat about running a mirror.

[cdcarter]

No Name Tournament, which has already been announced once, is a HS set that will be played in November (and maybe late october at one site). We are lining up sites all over, but if you are interested in mirroring, totally send me a mirror, and we can talk. Mirrors would require a small per team fee, that would get smaller if you write good packets by the end of August for me. We are still looking for a science editor. My email is cdcarter@gmail.com

[BuzzerZen]

totally send me a mirror

Christian Carter is collecting mirrors.

[wd4gdz]

Chris Borglum and I are looking to mirror the FSU Fall HS Tournament / Valencia CC Delta Burke tournament. We have scheduled our tournament for November 1st, and would like other mirrors to happen around that date. We plan to produce at least 14 packets, with an optional 1/1 math in each of them. Question sets from previous years are posted on the Stanford Archive.

If you're interested in hosting a high school mirror, please e-mail me, Billy Beyer: wfb04 at fsu dot edu
If you're interested in hosting a community college mirror (for free of charge!), please e-mail Chris Borglum: cborglum at valenciacc dot edu

[Yellow-throated Honeyeater]

Three things before I get into New Trier's offerings:
1) This thread is totally awesome, and I am going to tell Illinois hosts about it and link to it from the IHSSBCA homepage. I encourage other people to spread the word, especially if there are hosts you know who are new, who often use bad questions, or who haven't found a writer they get along with yet. I also hope that if this thread gets long (and I hope that it does get long) that somebody (possibly me) will organize it for the qbwiki so that it is easy for people to find what they want.
2) Keep in mind that if you are making an offer here, you are putting not only your own reputation on the line but also to some extent the reputation of this board as a useful place to get things done. Make every effort to abide by your promises and produce a high quality result. If at some point it looks like you will not be able to deliver on your promises, see #3.
3) Communication is very important. Nobody minds receiving an update on how the set is shaping up, and don't be annoyed if somebody contacts you a few weeks before a tournament asking how things are going. It is also important to let people know when they will receive the questions. Also, most people are used to NAQT IS questions, so be up front about it if your questions differ in some significant way from those in terms of format, distribution, or difficulty.

As to New Trier's offerings:
1) I am writing the Scobol Solo again this year. To see what the questions are like, follow the link. The matches are 20 tossups long with no bonuses. There are 14 regular rounds, plus a round of replacements, plus a 60 question round for the Championship. There are three computational questions in each round. The questions are split up into 20 categories, and the same categories occur in the same order in every round. The questions are written for an individual competition, so the difficulty is a little easier than IS. It will be held 11/22 this year, so I would prefer mirrors on the same date. Additionally, I do not want a mirror in Illinois, since I like attracting the best students throughout Illinois. Students from outside Illinois are also very welcome, but I'm realistic.
2) We are hosting a tournament on December 20 for teams. The questions will use the Illinois distribution (4/4 Lit, 4/4 Math, 4/4 Science, 4/4 Social Studies, 2/2 Fine Arts, 1/1 Interdisciplinary, 1/1 Miscellaneous), but the bonuses will be in the format used more commonly outside of Illinois (ACF/NAQT). We are not yet sure exactly who is writing exactly what, but let us know if you are interested in working with us on the questions. If somebody is willing to write a significant amount, we could produce two separate sets--one in the Illinois distribution for our tournament and another with more history for your tournament.

As far as what we are looking for:
Depending on when U of I hosts the NAQT Qualifier, there is interest in a tournament for strong Illinois teams on either 1/31 or 2/14. (My guess is that U of I will use 2/14, leaving 1/31 as a good date.) It probably would be hosted by either New Trier or Rockford Auburn. We also would like to see a good Nationals Prep in late April or early May in addition to the Midwest Championship that Culver hosts (using a different date than Culver). It looks like Notre Dame, or some high school in the South Bend Area, is going to host a No Name Mirror on 11/15, and that's a good thing.

[in on these shenanigans]

I strongly support the use of this thread, especially for Illinois tourneys. Thanks Charlie!

On that note, I (along with Kristin) am writing a tournament set for the Winnebago Invitational in mid-late January, and I'm interested in mirroring it anywhere outside Northern Illinois. The difficulty is going to be between A-level and IS sets, with question length at 5 lines 12 pt TNR. It's going to include probably 3/2 computational math per 20 question round and the bonuses will be in ACF format. I'll be writing 9 rounds of questions; if you are interested in mirroring this set, but you need more rounds and are willing to write, talk to me and we'll work something out. Help with writing/editing science would be my top priority in a mirroring arrangement. Email me at styxman42 AT gmail DOT com.

[cornfused]

I'd love to get a mirror of the Delta Burke or some other tournament so I can run it up here in Appleton, Billy. I'll send you an email as soon as I get out for the summer (next week.)

[theMoMA]

Minnesota, Brown, and Illinois will have a set for mirroring (in non-Midwest and non-New England regions) to be used in the second half of October. Illinois is planning to host this on the 25th, and the other two sites are tentative.

[wd4gdz]

I'd love to get a mirror of the Delta Burke or some other tournament so I can run it up here in Appleton, Billy. I'll send you an email as soon as I get out for the summer (next week.)

Please do! :)

[Gonzagapuma1]

As far as what we are looking for:
Depending on when U of I hosts the NAQT Qualifier, there is interest in a tournament for strong Illinois teams on either 1/31 or 2/14.

Either of those dates would be good if people are interested in mirroring GAT.

[wowitsquinthaha]

No Name Tournament, which has already been announced once, is a HS set that will be played in November (and maybe late october at one site). We are lining up sites all over, but if you are interested in mirroring, totally send me a mirror, and we can talk. Mirrors would require a small per team fee, that would get smaller if you write good packets by the end of August for me. We are still looking for a science editor. My email is cdcarter@gmail.com

I edits da science. Cause, I really probably wont play this tournament.

EDIT: I shouldnt click the submit button so quickly. I would really like someone in the midwest to do a GSAC mirror, but Chris is already doing NNT, so any takers would be appreciated. Also, you wont have to write any questions, just pay me $69.

[First Chairman]

For the record, High School Celebrity Shoot (non-buzzer format) is being mirrored between Duke and Case Western Reserve. Always looking for more people who would like to run this. It is designed a bit more early to mid-level teams, and while most questions are not pyramidal (as they are not buzzer-oriented), many will be. We have had some national-caliber teams play on this for the purposes of bringing up the younger kids in their program, and we welcome coaches' participation.

Looking for question-writers in all areas of biography. No math calculations.

[Yellow-throated Honeyeater]

I'll get back to you in the Fall about a possible GAT Mirror. At this point, it's hard to predict one way or another whether it would happen, though 1/31 would be the probable date at this point if it did happen.

[Sir Thopas]

Hunter, with Daichi Ueda, will be writing its second annual house-written tournament, Prison Bowl, to be held in January, and is looking for mirrors nationwide. So far we have the NY site, Walter Johnson in the DC area, and (I believe) possible interests in California and maybe Minnesota. Elsewhere would be appreciated. I guess there'd be a small per-team fee, although I'm not quite sure how this whole mirroring thing is supposed to work.

[vandyhawk]

I don't want to speak officially for Vanderbilt anymore, but given the hit in experience/leadership at Vandy, I'm guessing ABC (Oct 31-Nov 1) will try to latch on to either the FSU/Valencia or Minn/Brown/Ill tournaments. Joining forces with UVa again is also certainly a possibility, but I'll let Jack figure that out.

[Siverus Snape]

Does anyone know what regular season PACE-format (not just PACE-affiliated) tournaments are running this year? Auburn and a perhaps a couple other Illinois teams would be interested in at least pursuing the possibility.

[dtaylor4]

Why not a delayed mirror of the Harvard tournament?

[Siverus Snape]

Why not a delayed mirror of the Harvard tournament?

It looks like the Harvard tournament is 20/20 format, judging from their thread on this board.

[vcuEvan]

Does anyone know what regular season PACE-format (not just PACE-affiliated) tournaments are running this year? Auburn and a perhaps a couple other Illinois teams would be interested in at least pursuing the possibility.

The last couple of years there have been a PACE format regular season tournament towards the end of spring. Last year Minnesota, VCU, and Brown collaborated on it. I'm not in charge of it or anything but I'm sure if this happens again an Illinois mirror would be welcome.

[Siverus Snape]

I know that relatively few states outside of Illinois hold exclusively JV or fresh-soph tournaments, but we at Auburn High School in Rockford, Illinois are writing a set for a tournament in early January. There will be 8 rounds, each 20/20 with relatively flexible distribution (we write math for our state, but we also write plenty of replacements). We write what I believe to be great quality pyramidal questions, and we've switched our bonus format to mACF this year. I've never seen an NAQT A-set, so I can't really compare the difficulty, but we generally write a very accessible answer set well-suited for new high school players, but with enough depth that our hard clues really are hard. If anyone is really interested in mirroring this set, please contact me. My e-mail address is my hsquizbowl username at gmail dot com. I'm willing to answer any questions as well as provide a couple sample questions for quality assurance.

[harpersferry]

we've switched our bonus format to mACF this year

Yay.

[ihavenoidea]

I hear there might be a mirror at Pomona of HFT?

[Mechanical Beasts]

Pending Alejandro finding out more about staff issues etc, yes.

[gack1224]

Bettendorf (IA) is interested in a mirroring a tournament (high school varsity) on or around Mar. 28.

Vandyhawk-I know you said there might be a Vanderbilt tournament around that time. Let me know if we can mirror it in the Midwest.

[Mechanical Beasts]

Hey, this thread hasn't been really hopping recently (as everyone can tell), but I thought I'd post here to make it clear that the HFT set is looking for mirrors, particularly in the south, west, mid-Atlantic, etc. If you don't know which of those regions you are, or if you believe you are none of them, or if you believe you wouldn't really attract enough teams to starve another potential mirror site (for example, the Raleigh Charter mirror from last year didn't really affect either the VCU mirror or the Georgia one), then just email me anyway (andy.watkins2@gmail.com) and I'll let you know what can be worked out.

[jonah]

I totally forgot this thread existed. New Trier Varsity is seeking mirrors around the late December/January date slot.

[Huang]

Dunbar Fall is charging a mirror fee of $10 per team attending. However if other sets are charging a lower fee, we will lower our fee accordingly.

I'm aware schools might be hesitant to mirror a random house-written tournament so I'm attaching a packet I wrote for a packet exchange.

Packet Exchange 2009 Packet 1 - Sandy Huang.pdf

(137.54 KiB) Downloaded 469 times

Dunbar Fall questions will most likely be easier than what's in that packet in addition to being heavily playtested and edited.

[in on these shenanigans]

New year, new post -- Kristin and I are writing questions again for Winnebago things, and we're interested in mirroring them all over the place. They'll be ready for play sometime in the month of January, but likely not by the 9th.

We're going to have about 15 rounds, maybe a tiny bit more than that, at roughly the ever-popular "novice" difficulty level. If you want to purchase some rounds, we can work out a mirroring fee of around $10 (discounts if you're new to quizbowl, new to hosting tournaments, not funded by your school, etc., can be arranged if you ask). If you want free questions and are interested in writing, we can work something out there as well (science questions are, as usual, like gold to us), and we'll provide feedback on your writing if you like. My email address is in my profile.

[mtelepathic]

Members of the Ohio quizbowl community are producing a "Fall Kickoff Tournament" that would like to be mirrored. The tournament is scheduled for October 3rd in Ohio, although it may be delayed depending on how packet submission works out. We are looking at around 10-12 rounds, aiming for NAQT-IS level difficulty, 20 questions with two tie-breakers. Pricing is flexible and all proceeds go to funding the Ohio Superleague that is being worked out. Contact me if you want more information. Thanks.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

I'm curious, do you have a more complete list of writers and editors for this event?

[mtelepathic]

I am still expecting a lot of packets as I type this, so I cannot confirm all of the question writers, but I do have packets here already from Steven Wellstead (Case), David Jones (Northmont), and Mike Bindis (Miami), and questions from Jonathan Graham, Brian Saxton, and Mike McLaughlin. Bob Kilner (formerly Garfield Heights) was the original editor and director of this tournament, but he is having other tournaments to handle, so I am now the editor and director of this tournament, with some editing help from Joe Czupryn (Northmont).

Edit: added some names.

[Yellow-throated Honeyeater]

Scobol Solo is available to mirror. It is an all tossup set. There are fourteen regular rounds, a replacement round, and a sixty question Championship Round. Each round consists of one question each, in order, in Interdisciplinary, Current Events, Algebra/Precalculus, British Literature, World History, Chemistry, Music, Geometry/Trigonometry, Nonfiction, World Literature, Geography/Astronomy/Earth Science, Vocabulary, Biology, US History, Art/Architecture, Pyramidal Math, Religion/Mythology, Physics, US Literature, and Western European History. There are also two real tiebreakers and one crappy tiebreaker at the end of each round.

The cost is $1 per competitor if you use the questions on November 7 or $2 per competitor if you use the questions on a different date. The difference in price is because I would prefer it if the questions were used on the same date, and the low price is because this is a nonstandard tournament, and some of the people who would want to mirror it may want to work on it first. The questions are already written, except for the Current Events, so anybody interested could inspect the questions before deciding to use them and could get them in plenty of time to change the distribution. I can send them to you in rounds or sorted by category. There are currently 380 questions, and I will write an additional 18-20 Current Events questions. 60 of the questions are computational (55/60 of the math and 5/20 of the physics). No mirrors are allowed in Illinois, Northwest Indiana, or Southeast Wisconsin.

I have an email account at yahoo.com with the username reinsteind.

EDIT: Another quirk with this tournament is that, because I use power matching with students playing every other round, the odd-numbered rounds are more difficult than the even-numbered rounds after the first two rounds.

[mkanu]

Hey everybody!
I'd just like to inform you that duPont Manual High School's
Super Smart Bros. Brawl: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Buzzer
is available and open for mirrors. Of course, it will be pyramidal and the playoffs will be harder than the prelims. The packets are 21/21 but we expect for people to urn the tournament 20/20 with the last question as a replacement. The tournament will contain at least 6 prelim packets as well as at least 5 playoff packets and 2 more packets available for an advantage final that will be harder than / of equal difficulty of the playoff level packets. There will also be some number [probably 2] of extra sets. Oh, I should probably mention that the mirror cost per team for this excellent set is only $8. That's a great deal!

A sample packet of playoff level is available here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9798#p187441

The distribution that this tournament uses is as follows:
4/4 Lit
4/4 Science
4/4 History
3/3 RMP
2/2 Fine Arts
2/2 Social Science/ Current Events
1/1 Geography
1/1 Trash

More info related to the tournament can be found here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9798
[One minor note is that the distribution shown in that link is not the final distribution. The correct distribution is above.]

We do need some help with editing, but that is something that should not repel you from mirroring this set. We anticipate that the set will be completely written before June ends and that gives us plenty of time to play-test and edit the set. But if you all have any interest in helping us with this set you can find more information here:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10062

Anyone interested can contact me, Meghamsh Kanuparthy, at m [dot] kanuparthy [at] gmail [dot] com. Thank you for your interest.

[BGSO]

Dude, this thread had been dead for over 9 months...

[mkanu]

eh. Well... you read so maybe other people will too.

[Huang]

Dunbar Fall will be happening again this year. As of now, 3-4ish packets have been written, edited, playtested, and edited again. The other 2-3ish packets are still in raw form. Essentially, half the questions have already been written. There will probably still just be 12 rounds, maybe 14 or 15 rounds if I finish early.

Last year's (much too hard) set: http://quizbowlpackets.com/archive/2009DAFT.zip

Notable differences from last year:
-Much more accessible bonuses
-Powers
Edit:
-No more pointless quotes
-Packets of equal difficulty
Edit 2:
-No political/religious bias

I'll leave it to those who have playtested this year's questions to give a less biased view of the set's accessibility and quality.

The mirror fee will probably still be $10 per team, but I'm flexible if hosts want to work something out. Let me know if you're interested: huang.sundi@gmail.com

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

Please make the packets of equal difficulty this year. Please do not use 2-line pointless (yet interesting) quotes in your tossups and bonuses. Shorten the length of your questions, in general.

You will have a great set that i hope we get to play on.

[Huang]

Please make the packets of equal difficulty this year. Please do not use 2-line pointless (yet interesting) quotes in your tossups and bonuses. Shorten the length of your questions, in general.

You will have a great set that i hope we get to play on.

Oh and yes. Packets are of equal difficulty and pointless quotes have been eliminated.

Edit: Mr. C, the TUs will still be 7 lines TNR 12pt font (this is nearly identical to 6 lines TNR 10pt font) but teams will be able to answer before FTP. Power marks seem to be helping me smooth out descending clue difficulty.

[jonah]

What about digressions into political tirades? How about the policy of personally insulting people who tell you your set isn't perfect?

[Huang]

What about digressions into political tirades? How about the policy of personally insulting people who tell you your set isn't perfect?

There will barely be any politics.

Edit: Only you, Jonah

[Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon]

Do you promise to not put razor blades in your set like you did last year, Sandy?!!??11;/

[Huang]

Do you promise to not put razor blades in your set like you did last year, Sandy?!!??11;/

Haha, you never know! In all seriousness, I'll have a couple copy-editors ready to look over the set in case I go crazy (again).

[Cheynem]

Last year the University of Minnesota playtested and helped copy edit/offer feedback to the Dunbar set and to Georgia's set. We would be more than happy to do this again for any other HS tournament set.

[mkanu]

Last year the University of Minnesota playtested and helped copy edit/offer feedback to the Dunbar set and to Georgia's set. We would be more than happy to do this again for any other HS tournament set.

Really, because Manual would appreciate it.

[Cheynem]

REALLY

By this, I mean we're not going to write questions or edit this. We have enough on our plate as a team. But we're willing to provide another set of eyes to catch typos, egregious clue placement, point out bad ideas (or good ideas!), etc.

[Unicolored Jay]

The Solon Pre-Nationals set is free for any mirrors except for the New Jersey area, which has mirrored it already.

[mkanu]

.
By this, I mean we're not going to write questions or edit this. We have enough on our plate as a team. But we're willing to provide another set of eyes to catch typos, egregious clue placement, point out bad ideas (or good ideas!), etc.

That's exactly what we had in mind.

[Dr. Loki Skylizard, Thoracic Surgeon]

Are any sets available for mirroring around March?

[Lightinfa]

Are any sets available for mirroring around March?

GSAC.